Tennessee has faced two quarterbacks in a game a couple of times this season by their own doing. They’ll likely do so this week by Kentucky’s choice.
The Vols have knocked out a couple of quarterbacks during a game twice this season by sending the opposing starting quarterback to the bench against Arkansas and Oklahoma. Tennessee also faced two quarterbacks against Florida, which was a part of the Gators’ plan. Kentucky could play two quarterbacks – or make an all-out quarterback change – against the No. 7 Vols on Saturday when they host the Wildcats.
Starter Brock Vandagriff began the Auburn game last week, but struggled, which led to the Cats going with Gavin Wimsatt in the second half.
“I think defensively you’ve always got to know who the No. 2 is and have a plan for him,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his Monday afternoon press conference. “It can be through injury or them playing multiple guys. Your defensive players need to understand what type of player that is. Certainly for them, the quarterback-run game is always a part of it. Second half of last week, they played the younger kid.”
The younger kid would be Wimsatt, who missed on his first five pass attempts and ended the game completing three of 19 passes for 34 yards. Wimsatt ran for 23 yards on nine carries. His final pass was picked off in a 24-10 loss to Auburn.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has said that he didn’t want the quarterback situation to “dominate the headlines,” but that’s tough to do when you change quarterbacks in the middle of a game and during the course of the season.
It was a curious move as Vandagriff wasn’t bad necessarily against the Tigers. He completed nine of 17 passing attempts for 120 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Vandagriff was credited with four carries for -18 yards. If Wimsatt is the future, it would appear that Kentucky’s future is on the ground more than with Vandagriff.
“For us, we’ve got to do a great job of controlling the quarterback-run game,” Heupel said. “…You’ve got to rally, you’ve got to go make tackles in space, and certainly when it’s quarterback-run game, your eyes, your keys have got to take you to making those plays.”
Whoever the quarterback is for Kentucky, he’ll likely see more of a traditional defense from the Vols than the Cats have seen previously, especially if Kentucky decides to play two tight end packages on Saturday. The Vols have played more three linebacker sets on defense in recent weeks despite the Vols’ loss of middle linebacker Keenan Pili, who suffered a career-ending knee injury against Florida.
“There’s a lot of different reasons that you can get into your base personnel and that’s what you’re facing on the other side of the line of scrimmage, their skill set, how you want to defend the run game and what you want to play out on the perimeter,” Heupel said. “We’ve worked that all through the course of spring ball and training camp, having the flexibility and the opportunity to play different personnel groupings to those personnels that we’re seeing from the other side of the football. They’ve trained that way and have executed really well in it.”
That defensive formation could be key this week against Kentucky, especially if the Cats decide to keep things on the ground with Wimsatt. Tennessee hosts Kentucky in Neyland Stadium on Saturday at 7:45 EST.
